K-Pop Group Stray Kids Debuts With No. 1 Album, As Charli XCX Also Drops In Top 10
South Korean group Stray Kids has never made an impact on the Billboard 200 album chart before, but the K-pop team has come through and come on strong, landing at No. 1 with “Oddinary.”
The vast majority of interest in the band has come in the form of full albums sold, not streaming, which has helped ‘Oddinary’ claim the biggest week of 2022 yet in the sales department. . The overall total of album-equivalent units was 110,000, which isn’t a record for the year…but the fact that 103,000 of those units came from pure album sales set a benchmark that doesn’t. was reached by no one else in 22.
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Interestingly, Billboard reports that more than 100,000 of those 103,000 album sales were in CD form, with no vinyl edition available and little action on the digital download front – all seven different collectible packages proving physical appeal. irresistible to fans, as is often the case. the case with other K-pop groups like BTS.
Stray Kids has been around for a few years, but without any effort to make an impact in the US market so far. The group, a product of a 2017 reality show in South Korea, had two previous releases that did well on the world music charts. Billboard notes that ‘Oddinary’ is only the 13th album sung primarily not in English to hit No. 1 in the US
The only other top 10 debut album is Charli XCX’s ‘Crash’ – and surprisingly, given her outsized public profile, it’s her first top 10 album. It debuted at No. 7 with 31,500 album-equivalent units, according to data company Luminate, formerly MRC Data. That’s a good number but not great for an artist with an active fanbase who just made a recent high-profile appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
The remaining albums include last week’s chart topper, Lil Durk’s “7220,” slipping to No. 2 with 88,000 units still healthy, followed by another former No. 1, the “Encanto” soundtrack. , at No. 3 with 59,000. This one should see a boost next week thanks to its big Sunday look at the Oscars. Morgan Wallen, Jice WRLD and Weeknd’s Hit Collection are next at numbers 4-6. Drake, Gunna and Doja Cat complete the top 10 of the last three slots.
For anyone doubting Morgan Wallen’s chart supremacy, ‘Dangerous: the Double Album’ just set a record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the country album chart, Billboard points out – the week in progress is his 51st to this first place. The previous record was tied for 50 weeks between Luke Combs’ “This One’s for You” and Shania Twain’s “Come on Over”.
On the Billboard Hot 100, Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” is the No. 1 song for a fourth straight week. It racked up 66.7 million radio audience impressions and 15.1 million US streams, essentially on par with what the song garnered the previous week.
No new songs debuted in the top 10 of the Hot 100. A slight shift in chart positions resulted in Justin Bieber having two songs in the top 5, “Stay” featuring Kid Laroi at No. 2 and the solo track “Ghosts” at n°2. 5. Other hung artists include Kodak Black, whose “Gremlins” remains at No. 3, followed by Gayle’s “Abcdefu” which also retains its No. 4 position. “We’re Not Talking About Bruno” slips one spot at No. 6 – again, expect an Oscar-related bump on the next chart – and Imagine Dragons/JID, Lil Nas X and Olivia Rodrigo sit at No. 8-10.
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